Friendly Fire

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Nightmare of the Daleks

I really like how, despite how small-scale this story is, it manages to feel more tense than most universe-ending plots. It's also a poignant reminder that sometimes humanity is the real villain and a strong allegory for xenophobia. I think it really helps that I listened to the Interlude connected to this story, Gobbledegook, as that really made me care about Velar's fate.

In general, everything about this story was really good, the performances were absolutely brilliant from all the cast though I have to commend Peter Davison. You could really hear the fury and vitriol in Davison's voice as they recounted how Velar died, he absolutely sold the idea that he was learning of the passing of an old friend.

All in all, an incredibly strong adventure from start to finish. It shows that you don't need Cybermen or Daleks or the threat of the universe ending to make a tense story. Justice for Velar.

Next Story: The Edge of the War

In this story the Doctor and his friends find themselves visiting an unremarkable mining world to kill time while the TARDIS is out of action. The Doctor plans to meet up with an old friend on arrival but the group quickly finds the people of the planet suspiciously obstructive.

Ultimately, the story is one big racism allegory, well trodden ground but as is often the case with this type of story, you're getting something mostly surface level even if well executed which make no mistake, in this case it is! What sets this story apart is that it chooses to deal specifically with the aftermath of a terrible situation, contributing to the uneasy atmosphere that runs throughout the story.

This box set this is a part of is fairly experimental in its format, traditionally on audio most stories are two or four parts long and a common format with the classic series releases of recent years has been to get one of each. Conflicts of Interest instead opts to split its six episodes equally between stories, the three part format will be familiar to fans of Sylvester McCoy's TV seasons but is relatively uncharted territory on audio and it unfortunately shows with Friendly Fire, the pacing of the first part felt particularly off, pedestrian even by the standards of classic Doctor Who and as though it thought it had three more episodes in front of it rather than just the two.

After the first part and an admittedly naff cliffhanger (an unseen/unheard character pulling a gun is a little passé isn't it?) it's much smoother sailing, the story moves along at a good pace and I found myself much more invested as the story developed. Community-wide conspiracies are something I love in media and the Hartnell era lover I am, I really enjoy a story where the objective becomes simply surviving long enough to return to the TARDIS.

There's a particular moment I enjoyed where a character tries to shift blame onto the victim to soothe their own conscience and it's so immediately shot down, it's a strong moment for Peter Davison and certainly not the only one here, there's some great moments with him throughout that are able to make you feel for a character only mentioned in the story. Despite my voiced reservations this is one I can see myself coming back to from time to time.